India set to follow cheap car with £7 laptop

India has already given the world the 100,000-rupee (£1,450) Tata Nano car and
a no-frills mobile telephone that costs less than 800 rupees.

The laptop that may be sold for less than the cost of a paperback book has
been more than three years in the making.

The machine is the country’s answer to the American One Laptop per Child
project, which set out to produce a computer for $100 (£68). That
high-profile venture led by the scientist Nicholas Negroponte ran into
problems after several companies, including the chip manufacturer Intel,
refused to cooperate. As a result, the cost of Mr Negroponte’s laptop will
be closer to $200.

The laptop is the result of cooperation between several of India’s elite
technology institutions, including the Vellore Institute of Technology, the
Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and the Semi-conductor Laboratory
that forms part of India’s Space Department. Private companies are also
taking part.